Dr. Chheda – Do I recommend the flu vaccine every year? Yes I do. Why? I’ll tell you.

So the flu typically causes you to feel like you’ve been hit by an 18-wheel truck. It knocks you out, you’re out for a week, it’s contagious, and then you’re fine. However, kids under the age of 2 years and adults over the age of 65 tend to get into worse trouble. They can develop a pneumonia and then have to be hospitalized, and it can be fatal.

So those that are high risk – kids below the age of two, adults over the age of 65, and anybody in between who may have underlying respiratory issues like asthma or COPD – can get into trouble if they get the flu. And it’s to prevent that complication. It’s to prevent the pneumonia, it’s to prevent the hospitalization, and it’s really meant to stop the fatality of flu.

So why do I recommend the flu vaccine for everybody? Back in 2009, we had an outbreak of H1N1. In that particular year, H1N1 affected kids. Those over the age of 65 actually didn’t get that sick and they didn’t have the usual outbreak that they normally do. So the research went back and they found out that back in 1971, H1N1 was the strain that was in the flu vaccine that particular year.

So all of those adults above the age of 65 in 2009, when they were younger in 1971, they received a flu vaccine which contained the H1N1 strain. And lo and behold, 40 years later, it actually helped them because their body recognized it. When they saw H1N1, was able to produce the antibodies, and then they did not get sick. That particular outbreak, only the kids who had never received H1N1 in a flu vaccine got sick.

So even if the flu vaccine doesn’t protect you this year, or if you think that it’s “meh, nonsense” – 40 years later it might actually help when you need it. The flu strains do change every year and they can come back, as this has shown.

So if you’re thinking, if you’re on the fence about it, I would say go for it. It’s fine. Who wants to miss five days of work and five days of school and feel miserable? But it’s really the complications – the pneumonia, the hospitalizations, the fatality – that we’re trying to avoid.